Border post chaos hampers AfCFTA implementation

The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was established on January 1, 2021, and it brought high hopes that inter-regional trade in Africa would be revolutionised. But as MIKE FITZMAURICE says, the chaotic border posts are standing in the path of its successful implementation.

Despite the potential of creating a free-trade area representing 55 countries and 1,3 billion people, with a combined gross domestic product of $3,4 billion, the AfCFTA is largely seen as pie in the sky. Admittedly, it’s a mammoth task to get it off the ground, especially at a time when a devastating pandemic has the world in its grip.

There has been little or no change since its implementation. However, it remains a worthy ideal that needs to be implemented as a matter of urgency.

Not a single border post in southern Africa is interconnected via a single-window system. There is no transparency in the movement of documents, and there is duplication of entries at every border post. Currently, the main arterial border posts on the North-South Corridor and the Maputo Corridor are gridlocked with queues ranging from 28 km to 11 km and all trucks parks in the vicinity of the borders are full. This is a scene that usually plays out over festive seasons such as Christmas and Easter, but we are nowhere near those peak periods.

Slow movement of heavy goods vehicles into Zimbabwe at Beitbridge is largely a result of reduced working hours by Zimbabwe Clearing Agents and their runners, leaving drivers stranded at the border post. Therefore, there is little or no movement until around 10h00 the following morning. This leaves the customs yard congested and trucks wanting to cross onto the Zimbabwe side are stranded in queues on the South African side. When you are only clearing around 400 trucks a day and there are 600 trucks per day arriving at the border, there is little hope of ever clearing up the chaos that prevails.

The Chirundu One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) further north on the North-South Corridor between Zimbabwe and Zambia faces other challenges with both the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and Zambia Revenue Authority targeting fuel tankers for unnecessary inspections for the suspicious off-loading of fuel within their borders while in transit. Tankers are now subjected to dipping checks and duty payments for shortages on the Zimbabwean side. Then they are subjected to red lane inspections and sealing on the Zambian side. This means it takes three to four days to cross the border (where previously transit fuel destined for DRC was treated as fast-track cargo with no inspections, provided all seals were intact and documentation was in order).

The Lebombo Border Post on the Maputo Corridor has progressively got worse since Covid hit in March last year. Border crossing times at Lebombo have remained high since March 2020 with times of around 18 hours at the KM7 and 34 hours to cross into Mozambique and exit at KM4. With the border continually congested, queue jumping by drivers has become the norm. Not all transporters are using the KM7 Dry Port. They continue to queue on the N4, and robberies and attacks on drivers by thugs have become regular occurrences after dark. Drivers and transporters are also fed up with the slow movement at Lebombo and the lack of traffic control by law enforcement agencies who fail to prevent queue jumping by unscrupulous drivers.

There are too many manual processes in place at border posts for them to be efficient. Unfortunately, Covid-19 protocols introduced by all Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states to curb the spread of Covid are not aligned and have made matters worse.

Regional bureaucracy is especially bad at the organisations such as the SADC and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). SADC and COMESA don’t have the same authority as the East African Community (EAC). The EAC has a central government in Arusha where they agree on policy decisions and pass bills that must be implemented by all member countries. SADC and COMESA, in turn, develop guidelines but they lack the same centralised authority that requires member states to implement decisions.

To mimic the same kind of developmental momentum that has been seen in East Africa through a cargo streamlining process, free-trade facilitators across Africa should be looking east at what has been accomplished there – not just at borders but ports too.

Instead, while East African ports are growing, as confirmed by a World Bank and IHS Marketing study, the rest of the continent is lagging, creating the inescapable idea that the AfCFTA is dead in the water.